July 31, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



125 



physical science." The humanities were 

 not so named because of their peculiar 

 value in producing culture, nor because of 

 the human interests which they fostered, 

 but because they were human or secular in 

 their nature, as contrasted with the theo- 

 logical or divine. 



Ever since the revival of learning, philo- 

 logy and polite literature have been justly 

 held in high esteem as instruments of cul- 

 tm'e and as ' the literature of power.' Gen- 

 eration after generation of English scholars 

 and statesmen have received their intellec- 

 tual training largely by means of mathemat- 

 ics and the classical languages. In modern 

 times there have been added to these, sub- 

 sequent to University residence, the ac- 

 quisition of modern tongues and extensive 

 foreign travel. In America the classics 

 have furnished the major part of a liberal 

 training to many successive classes of 

 students. It is only within the past twenty- 

 five years that science has come to form 

 any considerable part of the curriculum of 

 American colleges. It is not my purpose 

 to detract in any way from the utility and 

 value of literature, philology, and philoso- 

 phy as important components of a liberal 

 education, but rather to show what the 

 study of science has in common with the 

 humanities as liberally interpreted by the 

 broadest scholars. A high estimate has 

 rightly been put upon the study of the 

 humanities by the most prominent educa- 

 tors, and it is not necessary to undervalue 

 their judgment for the purpose of advanc- 

 ing the cause of science. Whatever antip- 

 athy or opposition science has encountered 

 has had its origin either in prejudice or in 

 a lack of understanding of the aims, the 

 nature and the content of any connec- 

 ted body of science. It is perhaps folly to 

 try to remove the former, but a more re- 

 freshing task to point out what human in- 

 terests are involved in the pursuit of sci- 

 ence, and to what higher ministry to man's 



intellectual and ethical needs it has been 

 applied. 



It may be well at the outset to clear 

 away a misconception relating to the ob- 

 jects in view in scientific study and inves- 

 tigation. It is a gross libel on scientific 

 men to assert that the chief end aimed at 

 in the pursuit of science and the claims most 

 strongly urged in advocacy of its cultivation 

 are narrowly utilitarian or intensely prac- 

 tical. If worldly success were the only re- 

 ward awaiting the scientific investigator, 

 but few branches of science would be for- 

 tunate enough to find their votaries. The 

 taste for scientific research is a passion 

 which finds its gratification in the truth it 

 seeks. It can never be satisfied to con 

 over the lessons of the past alone, but it 

 restlessly pushes on into new chapters. The 

 true scientific man recognizes the immense 

 value of literary and linguistic study ; he is 

 also aware of the fact that the human intel- 

 lect is many-sided and has numerous apti- 

 tudes. To be broadly developed, to have 

 liberal sympathies, and to acquire the 

 power to be master of circumtances, the 

 educated man of to-day must know not only 

 language and literature and history and 

 philosophy; but he must have knowledge 

 of his environment, of the physical laws un- 

 der which he lives, of the varied life about 

 him, of the earth which he inhabits, and of 

 the heavens spread out in magnificent pan- 

 orama above him. 



Languages are considered to be the 

 humanistic studiesjpar excellence because they 

 are the product of human endeavor, the 

 outgrowth of human thought, the chief ex- 

 ponent and index of evolution in the human 

 mind. All language is therefore entitled 

 to be included in the humanities. But all 

 languages are not of equal interest and 

 value. They are not all equally developed 

 products, not all equally differentiated 

 flowers of the human intellect. The great- 

 est interest attaches to the language of 



